Terminal Text Editors

If you need a simple terminal-based text editor, here are a few common options and quick usage tips.

• vi / vim: ubiquitous, powerful; press i to insert, Esc then :wq to save and quit.
• nano: simple and beginner-friendly; use Ctrl+O to write and Ctrl+X to exit.
• emacs: very powerful editor available on many systems — see docs/tools/emacs.md for more.
• code (VS Code): you can open a folder or file from terminal with code . or code file.txt if VS Code is installed.

Example: edit your ~/.zshrc with nano:

nano ~/.zshrc
# make changes, then Ctrl+O to save, Ctrl+X to exit

For IDE-style editing, consider code (Visual Studio Code). For quick edits on remote servers, nano or vi are commonly available.

layout: default title: Terminal Text Editor parent: Common Technical Issues & Solutions —

Terminal Text Editor

Table of contents

1. Terminal Text Editors
   1. For IDE-style editing, consider code (Visual Studio Code). For quick edits on remote servers, nano or vi are commonly available.
2. vi / vim
3. nano (recommend)
4. emacs

vi / vim

nano (recommend)

emacs